OT: Out of my depth re: Mods for X-Box

JonInMiddleGA · 07-26-2005, 03:30 PM

Okay, time to consult the experts again.

Was asked by the fiance of a friend/employee to help him figure this stuff out, I said I haven't a clue but I know where to find out

I sorta know what "Mods" are -- basically some hardware or software that allow you to play games from one system on another system.

What I don't have the foggiest about is:
1) What's legal/illegal
2) What works/doesn't work
3) What exists/doesn't exist
4) Where to find/buy any of them, nor how much they cost, nor anything else about acquisition.

His primary goal is to be able to play various games from old systems (Nintendo was what he mentioned by name, but I think he has others too) on X-Box.

So could somebody take me through Remedial Mods & help me understand this stuff well enough to help him out?

Thanks in advance.

Philliesfan980 · 07-26-2005, 03:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Okay, time to consult the experts again.

Was asked by the fiance of a friend/employee to help him figure this stuff out, I said I haven't a clue but I know where to find out

I sorta know what "Mods" are -- basically some hardware or software that allow you to play games from one system on another system.

What I don't have the foggiest about is:
1) What's legal/illegal
2) What works/doesn't work
3) What exists/doesn't exist
4) Where to find/buy any of them, nor how much they cost, nor anything else about acquisition.

His primary goal is to be able to play various games from old systems (Nintendo was what he mentioned by name, but I think he has others too) on X-Box.

So could somebody take me through Remedial Mods & help me understand this stuff well enough to help him out?

Thanks in advance.

Well, I believe that mods are currently illegal on the xbox, no matter for what purpose (even if you're simply playing backups that you legally own, or running emulators for roms you legally own).

Now that's out of the way, go to hxxp://www.xbox-scene.com that will tell you all you need to know about running a modded xbox. FYI what your friend wants to do is very doable. All he needs is a XBOX chipped with a modchip (a chip that needs to be sodered onto your xbox's MB), then flashed with the latest bios, and then simply copy over the roms to the xbox. Again, I'd recommend going to the site that I had above in order for further info.

WrongWay · 07-26-2005, 03:52 PM

with both Microsoft & Sony getting ready to launch their next generation of Game systems, why aren't either of their current machines under $100.00?

Seems like they have both been stuck around $150.00 for over a year now.

thetrilogy · 07-26-2005, 03:54 PM

Since I am a PC/LAN tech, my cousin asked me to mod his XBOX.
I thought, no problem I can do this.

In reading up on the 'how-to' part, I found it too much to take on. Plus, it was going to cost some serious money. You also need an internet connection, perferrably high speed from what I remember. You also have to know what generation/version your XBOX is?
It is not a simple step to even copy a game disc, let alone mod-chip the xbox.

I never went through with modding his XBOX for him. I couldn't guarantee it would work afterword.

Calis · 07-26-2005, 04:21 PM

Probably be cheaper and easier to buy a Dreamcast when it's all said and done if that's what he's looking for.

Virtually no hassle at all getting those suckers to run on it. It's just as easy with the Dreamcast games as well though, probably part of the reason it didn't fair so well.

KWhit · 07-26-2005, 04:22 PM

Good thread. I have been thinking about this lately myself. I don't play my XBox very much any more and would like to be able to play some older games on it. It sounds like it would end up costing too much cash though to make it worth my while.

JonInMiddleGA · 07-26-2005, 04:42 PM

Calis -- funny you mentioned that, Dreamcast games were one of the things he mentioned wanted to be able to play on X-Box.

Thanks to everybody who replied, in a thread that's as good an example as any of why I still come to FOFC ... you really can get an answer to just about any question here

Easy Mac · 07-26-2005, 04:50 PM

Definitely buy a Dreamcast, they're normally like $30 at EB games.

ice4277 · 07-26-2005, 04:50 PM

I had a mod chip way back in my PS1 days, but from what I've heard, and has been mentioned here, its not worth trying on the Xbox.

ice4277 · 07-26-2005, 04:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Easy Mac

Definitely buy a Dreamcast, they're normally like $30 at EB games.

You know, I really loved my Dreamcast. I wish I had never sold it. I thought the majority of the games for it were very good. Its a shame it had Sega's marketing behind it and came out during that 'tweener' stage of console development.

Ryno · 07-26-2005, 06:19 PM

A friend of mine bought this about a year ago. It was solderless and easy to install. The toughest part was flashing the bios, but after he found good instructions, it wasn't so bad.

This has some good info about fixing and modding xboxes.

stevew · 07-26-2005, 06:27 PM

Just so i understand correctly, It's illegal to talk about warez on this board, but its okay to talk about emulation, and modding gaming hardware, which can allow piracy.

Philliesfan980 · 07-26-2005, 07:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevew

Just so i understand correctly, It's illegal to talk about warez on this board, but its okay to talk about emulation, and modding gaming hardware, which can allow piracy.

Stop being a baby. Nobody said anything about warez, just running some games that we're assuming that the guy bought way back when.

dawgfan · 07-26-2005, 07:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevew

Just so i understand correctly, It's illegal to talk about warez on this board, but its okay to talk about emulation, and modding gaming hardware, which can allow piracy.

Most games that modders or emulaters are playing are considered public domain. They've been unavailable for purchase for so long that there's virtually no material harm being done to the original game publishers. You could argue that it harms the publishers that own the current rights that try to release "classic arcade" disks, but most of the games that people are looking to play on their mods or emulators aren't ones that you'd find in these kinds of releases.

Yellow5 · 07-26-2005, 08:58 PM

I own 2 machines. One has a mod chip (solderless) and I use it as a media center system and the other is a non mod xbox.

The mod chip cost me roughly 60 bucks. Had to open the case and then remove the old hard drive, replacing it with a 120 gig drive. The chip (Xecuter) I use is basically a "snap in place" kind of system that does not require soldering. It's a little tricky to get it seated correct on the motherboard.

You also need to get an operating system on the new hard drive, and flash the bios.

Once that was complete I installed Xbox Media Center and now that machine is a dedicated Media Center. I have a wireless home network so I can stream music from my PC to the xbox and listen through my home theater. Also has the same visualizations that you find for winamp so I can have the music playing and the visualization running on the 56 inch screen.

I also stream music from online sources like Soma FM.

I play our movies direct from DVD or rip the movies to the hard drive and store them that way so I can save wear and tear on the DVD. (I have two kids and they are unforgiving when it comes to discs)

Another nice feature is the ability to browse the apple quicktime site and pull new movie previews direct from the net and watch them on the big screen.

The cost was worth it to me because I enjoy tinkering with things like this, but I would not recommend it for the average person.

HomerJSimpson · 07-26-2005, 09:51 PM

I was searching for a cheap Xbox a couple of weeks ago and ran across a place selling modded Xboxes. I can't find the site now, but the prices weren't bad. I think it was like $300 for one with a large hard-drive and a couple of emulators.

dawgfan · 07-27-2005, 12:43 AM

One thing to note about modding your Xbox - if you do so, you may find yourself cut off from Xbox Live content. Microsoft is pretty cagey about figuring out if your Xbox has been modded, and if so they have the right to terminate your Xbox Live access.

Ragone · 07-27-2005, 01:33 AM

yep.. dawgfan is right.. and just because you boot up and it lets you into xbox live.. it won't forever..

Eaglesfan27 · 07-27-2005, 08:30 PM

This article from Gamespot seems slightly relevant to the discussion (not that I'm implying any of you are doing any pirating):

Xbox pirate pegged for the slammer

US District Court hands eight-month sentence to Pandora's Cube employee for "Super Xboxes."

31-year-old Hitesh Patel was an employee of Pandora's Cube, a game retailer in the Washington, DC area. He managed one of the three local stores and served as the technician for all three. The stores sell current-gen consoles and games, as well as anime and hentai DVDs.

However, Patel also sold another product on the side: Super Xboxes. The modified consoles, which were displayed in plain view, ran customers $500 and featured larger hard drives and the ability to play illegally copied games. Many of the units already came with several games preloaded.

Patel pled guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit felony copyright infringement and to violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. For his crimes, Patel will serve eight months--four in jail and four in house arrest. After eight months, he'll be subject to two years of probation.

"We are grateful for the work of US law enforcement and prosecutors for bringing this defendant to justice," said Douglas Lowenstein, president of the Entertainment Software Association, the trade association representing US computer and video game publishers. "Sentences of this magnitude send a strong message to the pirate community that intellectual property theft is a serious crime with serious consequences."

The illegal units were discovered in a raid conducted December 1 by federal authorities. Three more Pandora's Cube employees are up for sentencing next month.

By Tim Surette -- GameSpot
POSTED: 07/27/05 04:57 PM PST

Philliesfan980 · 07-27-2005, 09:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

This article from Gamespot seems slightly relevant to the discussion (not that I'm implying any of you are doing any pirating):

Xbox pirate pegged for the slammer

US District Court hands eight-month sentence to Pandora's Cube employee for "Super Xboxes."

31-year-old Hitesh Patel was an employee of Pandora's Cube, a game retailer in the Washington, DC area. He managed one of the three local stores and served as the technician for all three. The stores sell current-gen consoles and games, as well as anime and hentai DVDs.

However, Patel also sold another product on the side: Super Xboxes. The modified consoles, which were displayed in plain view, ran customers $500 and featured larger hard drives and the ability to play illegally copied games. Many of the units already came with several games preloaded.

Patel pled guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit felony copyright infringement and to violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. For his crimes, Patel will serve eight months--four in jail and four in house arrest. After eight months, he'll be subject to two years of probation.

"We are grateful for the work of US law enforcement and prosecutors for bringing this defendant to justice," said Douglas Lowenstein, president of the Entertainment Software Association, the trade association representing US computer and video game publishers. "Sentences of this magnitude send a strong message to the pirate community that intellectual property theft is a serious crime with serious consequences."

The illegal units were discovered in a raid conducted December 1 by federal authorities. Three more Pandora's Cube employees are up for sentencing next month.

By Tim Surette -- GameSpot
POSTED: 07/27/05 04:57 PM PST

What an idiot. Selling that stuff is just asking for it, especially loading up games.

dervack · 07-27-2005, 10:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ice4277

I had a mod chip way back in my PS1 days, but from what I've heard, and has been mentioned here, its not worth trying on the Xbox.

Let's just say that I diasgree with you on this point. It wasn't that hard, but I never installed a larger HD.

ice4277 · 07-28-2005, 04:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dervack

Let's just say that I diasgree with you on this point. It wasn't that hard, but I never installed a larger HD.

Thats cool...I just know that for me it would not be worth it, I know of a couple people that have done it and had problems with their units afterwards.

Daimyo · 07-28-2005, 10:28 PM

First off, I believe the EULA states its illegal to modify any hardware or software on the device. I don't know that anyone has actually challenged it, but its there. Personally I don't think its wrong to tinker/hack a device you own as long as you don't do illegal things with it, but I guess that a personal comfort issue.

Now that that's out of the way you really have two options: a hardware hack or a software hack. The difficulty of the hardware hack really depends on the version of xbox you have. Earlier ones are much easier to do, the newest ones require soldering and a decent amount of modification. You can probably find someone to do it for you for $100-$150 bucks or less or you can buy the stuff online and do-it-yourself for around $50 (or less if you have an older xbox.

The software hack works for all versions (although the procedure is a bit different). It works by exploiting vulnerabilties in three older games. You can find these games for $5-10 bucks used and then you also need an Action Replay like device ($20) to transfer the saved game to a memory card. You basically boot the game, load the saved game file, answer some questions based on the version of your xbox and wait 20 minutes for it to do its thing.

The end result of both is pretty much the same but there are some differences. The hardware hack voids your warranty in an obvious way. The better ones usually have s witch to go from hacked to non-hacked mode. In non-hacked mode it is electrically cut off so that you can safely play xbox-live (with original, legal games)... in hacked mode you can do all the cool stuff. Software hacks also void your warranty, but not in an obvious way... if you follow the instructions you can basically restore your xbox back to the state it was pre-hack if you need to service it. The software hack is a bit more complicated and you can fuck up your system if you do something wrong when its installing (probably less risky than hard modding yourself though). The nice thing about the software hack is that because of the way the xbox boots it only runs if you boot without a game in the drive... if you boot off a disc you can play xbox live safely. Some games may not work with softmodding... I know the NCAA2k5/Tennis double pack doesn't work well although I remember i got it to work before.

If you can't tell I chose to softmod my xbox... mainly because it was a cool project and buying a pre-packaged peice of hardware didn't seem much fun. I never copied games or anything like that (I didn't replace the 8GB HD so that's pretty tough to do). But there are a bunch of things you can do with a modded xbox that are not unethical. I made mine into a multimedia center... it could stream music from my PC or from internet radio... could play videos, stuff like that. I guess I did cross the into the grey area a little because I put some emulators on it to play old arcade, nintendo, SNES, and gameboy games but I'm pretty comfortable with that since they're so old and unavailable through normal retail channels now. Basically a hacked xbox gives you functionality you wouldn't get for less than $500 in any other multimedia device (save building an HMPC on your own).

I haven't really used mine for a couple months, but it was great fun for a while.. had to move on to other geek projects. I just started reading a book called "Hack the Xbox" written in ~2003 that might interest you... I'm not very far in and picked it up mainly for its more general electronic and reverse engineering content, but it might have some of what you need although the technology has changed so much since it was published. Softmods weren't even available back then...

LastWhiteSoxFanStanding · 02-24-2006, 07:33 PM

I have already gone the softmod root and it actually worked so well I want to put more movies on it. So anybody have any tips on where to buy or how to install a bigger hard drive for the xbox? Seems like a much more complicated process than softmodding.

Daimyo · 02-24-2006, 09:46 PM

Newegg would be the place to get the hard drive. You're limited to 160GB drives which you can find for under $100 easy. As for the actual operation I didn't do it because I lost interest quickly after I did the mod, but you can find step by step instructions pretty quickly via google.

caspanky · 02-24-2006, 11:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daimyo

You're limited to 160GB drives...

This isn't true. I have placed a 250GB drive in mine, and my friends have larger ones in their systems. You'll end up with more partitions (C,D,E,F,X,Y,and Z drives I think) but it doesn't effect the functionallity. And I'll second the recommendation of www.xbox-scene.com, they have some great tutorials, and step by step directions for everything you need.

Poli · 02-24-2006, 11:47 PM

While on deployment, I had a "nerd", and I use the term loosely since we're for the most part addicted to text sims here, that had a book shipped to him in regards to modding the X-Box.

The crazy part? The kid didn't have an X-Box.

The book made some rather interesting stuff seem rather easy. I don't think I'd care to actually mod mine, though. I really don't see a reason to.

caspanky · 02-25-2006, 01:01 AM

Personally, I keep quite a few MP3's on mine, so I can play them through my home theater system. I also use it to watch videos after i transfer them from my pc so I can watch them on the larger screen. It doesn't really serve that great of a purpose, but I've always enjoyed tinkering with stuff, and soldering in the chip, and adding the bigger hard drive was fun in a way for me. But, I agree that it's not something everyone needs to do.

sterlingice · 02-25-2006, 02:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Easy Mac

Definitely buy a Dreamcast, they're normally like $30 at EB games.

I got a lot off of ebay about a year and a half ago with a system, 2 controllers, 2 VMUs, a keyboard, light gun, and 10-12 games, 7 of which were good for $80. That's what I'm planning on doing when I have the money to get a PS2 and that may be the best way to go with a Dreamcast still.

SI

Poli · 02-25-2006, 02:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daimyo

First off, I believe the EULA states its illegal to modify any hardware or software on the device.

I didn't notice this before, but that may make this thread a bannable offense.

sterlingice · 02-25-2006, 03:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevew

Just so i understand correctly, It's illegal to talk about warez on this board, but its okay to talk about emulation, and modding gaming hardware, which can allow piracy.

Just so I understand correctly, but do you guys just store up checkmarks in some little book so that someday you can get back at SkyDog or something? Kindof have a pocket "well, see, in this thread here, you said this somewhat related thing was ok, but here, this other tangentially related thing was wrong"? And this all for the purpose of, at some later date, pulling it out and complaining that moderation isn't a 100% perfectly consistent thing (as if that were possible)? Not saying this thread is right or wrong but I'm just trying to get the full picture here, of course.

SI

Poli · 02-25-2006, 03:05 AM

I think I tossed my dreamcast out last year. I finally came to the realization I would never play it again.

Poli · 02-25-2006, 03:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Just so I understand correctly, but do you guys just store up checkmarks in some little book so that someday you can get back at SkyDog or something? Kindof have a pocket "well, see, in this thread here, you said this somewhat related thing was ok, but here, this other tangentially related thing was wrong"? And this all for the purpose of, at some later date, pulling it out and complaining that moderation isn't a 100% perfectly consistent thing (as if that were possible)? Not saying this thread is right or wrong but I'm just trying to get the full picture here, of course.

SI

You lost me at hello.

Daimyo · 02-25-2006, 11:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ardent enthusiast

While on deployment, I had a "nerd", and I use the term loosely since we're for the most part addicted to text sims here, that had a book shipped to him in regards to modding the X-Box.

The crazy part? The kid didn't have an X-Box.

The book made some rather interesting stuff seem rather easy. I don't think I'd care to actually mod mine, though. I really don't see a reason to.

If its the "Hack the Xbox" book by Andrew "Bunny" Huang its a great read even if you never plan to own or mod an xbox. There is a lot of interesting discussion on reverse engineering in general and the legal issues surrounding it.

07-26-2005, 03:54 PM	#4
thetrilogy Mascot Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Ohio	Since I am a PC/LAN tech, my cousin asked me to mod his XBOX. I thought, no problem I can do this. In reading up on the 'how-to' part, I found it too much to take on. Plus, it was going to cost some serious money. You also need an internet connection, perferrably high speed from what I remember. You also have to know what generation/version your XBOX is? It is not a simple step to even copy a game disc, let alone mod-chip the xbox. I never went through with modding his XBOX for him. I couldn't guarantee it would work afterword. Last edited by thetrilogy : 07-26-2005 at 03:54 PM.

07-26-2005, 04:42 PM	#7
JonInMiddleGA Hall Of Famer Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: Behind Enemy Lines in Athens, GA	Calis -- funny you mentioned that, Dreamcast games were one of the things he mentioned wanted to be able to play on X-Box. Thanks to everybody who replied, in a thread that's as good an example as any of why I still come to FOFC ... you really can get an answer to just about any question here __________________ "I lit another cigarette. Unless I specifically inform you to the contrary, I am always lighting another cigarette." - from a novel by Martin Amis

07-26-2005, 08:58 PM	#15
Yellow5 High School Varsity Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Tacoma, Wa.	I own 2 machines. One has a mod chip (solderless) and I use it as a media center system and the other is a non mod xbox. The mod chip cost me roughly 60 bucks. Had to open the case and then remove the old hard drive, replacing it with a 120 gig drive. The chip (Xecuter) I use is basically a "snap in place" kind of system that does not require soldering. It's a little tricky to get it seated correct on the motherboard. You also need to get an operating system on the new hard drive, and flash the bios. Once that was complete I installed Xbox Media Center and now that machine is a dedicated Media Center. I have a wireless home network so I can stream music from my PC to the xbox and listen through my home theater. Also has the same visualizations that you find for winamp so I can have the music playing and the visualization running on the 56 inch screen. I also stream music from online sources like Soma FM. I play our movies direct from DVD or rip the movies to the hard drive and store them that way so I can save wear and tear on the DVD. (I have two kids and they are unforgiving when it comes to discs) Another nice feature is the ability to browse the apple quicktime site and pull new movie previews direct from the net and watch them on the big screen. The cost was worth it to me because I enjoy tinkering with things like this, but I would not recommend it for the average person. __________________ Xbox Gamertag: m0nk3y b0t

07-27-2005, 08:30 PM	#19
Eaglesfan27 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: New Jersey	This article from Gamespot seems slightly relevant to the discussion (not that I'm implying any of you are doing any pirating): Xbox pirate pegged for the slammer US District Court hands eight-month sentence to Pandora's Cube employee for "Super Xboxes." 31-year-old Hitesh Patel was an employee of Pandora's Cube, a game retailer in the Washington, DC area. He managed one of the three local stores and served as the technician for all three. The stores sell current-gen consoles and games, as well as anime and hentai DVDs. However, Patel also sold another product on the side: Super Xboxes. The modified consoles, which were displayed in plain view, ran customers $500 and featured larger hard drives and the ability to play illegally copied games. Many of the units already came with several games preloaded. Patel pled guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit felony copyright infringement and to violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. For his crimes, Patel will serve eight months--four in jail and four in house arrest. After eight months, he'll be subject to two years of probation. "We are grateful for the work of US law enforcement and prosecutors for bringing this defendant to justice," said Douglas Lowenstein, president of the Entertainment Software Association, the trade association representing US computer and video game publishers. "Sentences of this magnitude send a strong message to the pirate community that intellectual property theft is a serious crime with serious consequences." The illegal units were discovered in a raid conducted December 1 by federal authorities. Three more Pandora's Cube employees are up for sentencing next month. By Tim Surette -- GameSpot POSTED: 07/27/05 04:57 PM PST __________________ Retired GM of the eNFL 2007 Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia Eagles (19-0 record.) GM of the WOOF 2006 Doggie Bowl Champion Atlantic City Gamblers. GM of the IHOF 2019 and 2022 IHOF Bowl Champion Asheville Axemen.

07-28-2005, 10:28 PM	#23
Daimyo College Starter Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Berkeley	First off, I believe the EULA states its illegal to modify any hardware or software on the device. I don't know that anyone has actually challenged it, but its there. Personally I don't think its wrong to tinker/hack a device you own as long as you don't do illegal things with it, but I guess that a personal comfort issue. Now that that's out of the way you really have two options: a hardware hack or a software hack. The difficulty of the hardware hack really depends on the version of xbox you have. Earlier ones are much easier to do, the newest ones require soldering and a decent amount of modification. You can probably find someone to do it for you for $100-$150 bucks or less or you can buy the stuff online and do-it-yourself for around $50 (or less if you have an older xbox. The software hack works for all versions (although the procedure is a bit different). It works by exploiting vulnerabilties in three older games. You can find these games for $5-10 bucks used and then you also need an Action Replay like device ($20) to transfer the saved game to a memory card. You basically boot the game, load the saved game file, answer some questions based on the version of your xbox and wait 20 minutes for it to do its thing. The end result of both is pretty much the same but there are some differences. The hardware hack voids your warranty in an obvious way. The better ones usually have s witch to go from hacked to non-hacked mode. In non-hacked mode it is electrically cut off so that you can safely play xbox-live (with original, legal games)... in hacked mode you can do all the cool stuff. Software hacks also void your warranty, but not in an obvious way... if you follow the instructions you can basically restore your xbox back to the state it was pre-hack if you need to service it. The software hack is a bit more complicated and you can fuck up your system if you do something wrong when its installing (probably less risky than hard modding yourself though). The nice thing about the software hack is that because of the way the xbox boots it only runs if you boot without a game in the drive... if you boot off a disc you can play xbox live safely. Some games may not work with softmodding... I know the NCAA2k5/Tennis double pack doesn't work well although I remember i got it to work before. If you can't tell I chose to softmod my xbox... mainly because it was a cool project and buying a pre-packaged peice of hardware didn't seem much fun. I never copied games or anything like that (I didn't replace the 8GB HD so that's pretty tough to do). But there are a bunch of things you can do with a modded xbox that are not unethical. I made mine into a multimedia center... it could stream music from my PC or from internet radio... could play videos, stuff like that. I guess I did cross the into the grey area a little because I put some emulators on it to play old arcade, nintendo, SNES, and gameboy games but I'm pretty comfortable with that since they're so old and unavailable through normal retail channels now. Basically a hacked xbox gives you functionality you wouldn't get for less than $500 in any other multimedia device (save building an HMPC on your own). I haven't really used mine for a couple months, but it was great fun for a while.. had to move on to other geek projects. I just started reading a book called "Hack the Xbox" written in ~2003 that might interest you... I'm not very far in and picked it up mainly for its more general electronic and reverse engineering content, but it might have some of what you need although the technology has changed so much since it was published. Softmods weren't even available back then... Last edited by Daimyo : 07-28-2005 at 10:30 PM.

07-26-2005, 03:52 PM	#3
WrongWay Banned Join Date: Jan 2005	with both Microsoft & Sony getting ready to launch their next generation of Game systems, why aren't either of their current machines under $100.00? Seems like they have both been stuck around $150.00 for over a year now.

07-26-2005, 04:21 PM	#5
Calis College Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Kansas	Probably be cheaper and easier to buy a Dreamcast when it's all said and done if that's what he's looking for. Virtually no hassle at all getting those suckers to run on it. It's just as easy with the Dreamcast games as well though, probably part of the reason it didn't fair so well.

07-26-2005, 04:22 PM	#6
KWhit Coordinator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Conyers GA	Good thread. I have been thinking about this lately myself. I don't play my XBox very much any more and would like to be able to play some older games on it. It sounds like it would end up costing too much cash though to make it worth my while.

07-26-2005, 04:50 PM	#8
Easy Mac Registered User Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Here	Definitely buy a Dreamcast, they're normally like $30 at EB games.

07-26-2005, 04:50 PM	#9
ice4277 Pro Rookie Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Berkley, MI: The Hotbed of FOFC!	I had a mod chip way back in my PS1 days, but from what I've heard, and has been mentioned here, its not worth trying on the Xbox.

07-26-2005, 06:19 PM	#11
Ryno H.S. Freshman Team Join Date: May 2004 Location: Peoria, IL	A friend of mine bought this about a year ago. It was solderless and easy to install. The toughest part was flashing the bios, but after he found good instructions, it wasn't so bad. This has some good info about fixing and modding xboxes.

07-26-2005, 06:27 PM	#12
stevew Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: the yo'	Just so i understand correctly, It's illegal to talk about warez on this board, but its okay to talk about emulation, and modding gaming hardware, which can allow piracy.

07-26-2005, 09:51 PM	#16
HomerJSimpson College Benchwarmer Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Springfield, USA	I was searching for a cheap Xbox a couple of weeks ago and ran across a place selling modded Xboxes. I can't find the site now, but the prices weren't bad. I think it was like $300 for one with a large hard-drive and a couple of emulators.

07-27-2005, 12:43 AM	#17
dawgfan Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Seattle	One thing to note about modding your Xbox - if you do so, you may find yourself cut off from Xbox Live content. Microsoft is pretty cagey about figuring out if your Xbox has been modded, and if so they have the right to terminate your Xbox Live access.

07-27-2005, 01:33 AM	#18
Ragone Pro Rookie Join Date: May 2002 Location: Kansas City, Mo	yep.. dawgfan is right.. and just because you boot up and it lets you into xbox live.. it won't forever..

02-24-2006, 07:33 PM	#24
LastWhiteSoxFanStanding College Starter Join Date: Jun 2003	I have already gone the softmod root and it actually worked so well I want to put more movies on it. So anybody have any tips on where to buy or how to install a bigger hard drive for the xbox? Seems like a much more complicated process than softmodding.

02-24-2006, 09:46 PM	#25
Daimyo College Starter Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Berkeley	Newegg would be the place to get the hard drive. You're limited to 160GB drives which you can find for under $100 easy. As for the actual operation I didn't do it because I lost interest quickly after I did the mod, but you can find step by step instructions pretty quickly via google.

02-24-2006, 11:47 PM	#27
Poli FOFC Survivor Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Wentzville, MO	While on deployment, I had a "nerd", and I use the term loosely since we're for the most part addicted to text sims here, that had a book shipped to him in regards to modding the X-Box. The crazy part? The kid didn't have an X-Box. The book made some rather interesting stuff seem rather easy. I don't think I'd care to actually mod mine, though. I really don't see a reason to. __________________ Cheer for a walk on quarterback! Ardent leads the Vols in the dynasty forum.

02-25-2006, 01:01 AM	#28
caspanky Mascot Join Date: Aug 2004	Personally, I keep quite a few MP3's on mine, so I can play them through my home theater system. I also use it to watch videos after i transfer them from my pc so I can watch them on the larger screen. It doesn't really serve that great of a purpose, but I've always enjoyed tinkering with stuff, and soldering in the chip, and adding the bigger hard drive was fun in a way for me. But, I agree that it's not something everyone needs to do.

02-25-2006, 03:05 AM	#32
Poli FOFC Survivor Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Wentzville, MO	I think I tossed my dreamcast out last year. I finally came to the realization I would never play it again. __________________ Cheer for a walk on quarterback! Ardent leads the Vols in the dynasty forum.

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